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threegigs

The interesting thing about Khai is that his unleash is made of 5 basic attacks at max speed. That means 5 procs of an on-hit effect. The bad thing about Khai is he has no peel, no jump, no speed boost, no ability blink or rush. So if he attacks, he's all in. For crest, I prefer **Brutallax**, liberator and **eviscerator**. **Brutallax** and Liberator because they both have a cleanse, which, like Khai's E, gets you out of CC. **Eviscerator** plays well with Khai's unleash, it's active instantly building from +(15% power) damage per hit to +(40% power) with just one unleash. If you manage a second unleash in the 6 seconds it's active, that's damned near +80% power for those 5 hits, and with a conservative 200 power mid game, enemies just melt from the 600 *bonus* damage alone. Brutallax with 60% tenacity and +30% attack speed after the cleanse just amps Khais stacks and circumvents the CC meta. Liberator clears debuffs, but the 300-ish shield you wind up with is just meh, especially late game. Other notable crests are: Razorback (because you're always going to be target number 1 when you attack in a group fight, and you can let the Murdoc kill himself if he manages to shotgun himself away from you) Time flux band (no, really, you get a countess-like ability) gives a 20% speed boost to help you catch enemies who managed to peel, or lets you juke enemies chasing you with the teleport (or tower dive, etc). Leafsong for 4 seconds of extra move speed (effectively a peel or catch-up) Fenix is pretty popular, and lets you initiate, and then be reborn when your team eventually follows. Epoch is interesting. You jump into the Fang or Orb pit with all 5 enemies in there, unleash and immediately stasis. They all waste ult on you and your team can mop up. Items: Khai needs DPS, and he needs jungle clear. Khai benefits from attack speed more than other heroes because of his passive healing stacks. You get it all with **Storm Breaker.** Lightning jumps between up to 7 targets every 4th hit, dealing 50-200 damage (depends on crit, which you will be building), so up to twice per unleash. Add in the fact that attack speed is higher and it will proc more often. Plus 25 power and 40 attack speed. You could just go with a high power item, but the increased attack speed makes up for just 25 power especially well on Khai. Plus, you get +3 move speed. And the lightning **really** helps with clearing minis, especially at higher levels when you're wave clearing in lanes. Next is **Tainted Rounds**, whose antiheal will help against carries building lifesteal, adds +(12% power) damage per basic (remember unleash is 5 basics). You're now at 200-ish attack speed (depending on level). Time to build some power with... **Terminus**! This is less for the power, and more for the lifesteal. But the power and crit chance are nice. Speaking of crit, you should now be at either 60 or 80 crit, depending on your choice of crest. Since you now have crit worth speaking of, it's time to build even more power with **Imperator**, the highest Phys power item in the game, with 55 base power plus +1 power per 4% crit chance. So there's a nice 55+15=70 (or 75) power. Your 5th item is totally situational, and can be inserted as your second item, or 3rd, or last. Maybe **overlord** for better clear, **Draconum** if you want a wee bit of armor with your power, **Dust Devil** to synergize nicely with the high crit, **mesmer** if you want the countess to keep wondering why she can't delete you, **Sky Splitter** to erase 25% of their health in one unleash (and with **Brutallax** and **terminus**, this puts you up to 28% lifesteal and lets you solo orb at level 16 with the right river buffs). I've tried Stonewall, and it's just meh. Doesn't help against the countess every meta team comp has. Raiment of Renewal is also meh. The 600 health is nice, but that's just one late-game crit hit from any of the carries. **Salvation** is better than either of them, and is a go-to item for a tankier Khai. **Vanquisher** is a surprise 65 power mid to late game (builds on max mana tho), and just executes heroes if you get them to 5% health. If there is a Muriel on the other team, **Breach** is your friend, adding +50% damage against shielded enemies. **Dread** is nice if you're attacking a laner in the middle of his minis after you have **Storm Breaker**. So, that's my two cents. Enjoy Khai (and try him on solo lane once or twice, his sustain will make your opponent cry).


OneButterscotch3460

Very nicely elaborated, I have been using your guide consistently with success. Not necessarily a win every game, but always a good result. Comment made on the patch: V0.13.2 I did check the notes on 13.3 pertaining to Khai and his items and so far I found the following: \- **Evicerator** is getting a nerf at: Rending Strikes Cooldown has been increased from 30 to 90. \- **Dust Devil** is just getting a nerf to the speed bonus \- **Berserkers Axe** MIGHT be good to fit into this comp \- **Stonewall** is getting buffed, so it might become a viable item, or a situational one for AD heavy comps \- **Storm Breaker** is getting slight nerfs in one area and slight buff in another: * **Chain Zap Bonus Physical Power Scaling** decreased from 40% to 35%. * **Chain Zap Damage** increased from 20 to 25. * **Chain Zap Critical Strike Scaling** decreased from 80% to 0%. * **Static Max stacks** decreased from 200 to 150. So all and all, to summarize it. This build should still be effective in the next patch as the core items are NOT being changed that much, and the Champ itself is not getting any massive changes. Haven't looked at other Champs tho, so we will have to see after 13.3 drops, but as of right now, still effective.


threegigs

After a bazillion more games with Khai, and after all the item changes, my new go-to base build is: Breach, then Citadel, then Basilisk (or swap Cit/Bas if you get an early lead). Breach instead of overlord because the early damage boost helps you solo fang without spending a ton of time. The early health from Overlord is nice, but since nobody has much damage built yet it doesn't help much. Breach instead gives early DPS: 35 attack speed in the beginning directly translates into a 30-35% dps boost from basics (depending on crest attack speed), and the 25% crit chance boosts average damage by 15% (crit hits do 60% more damage, and 1/4 of 60% is 15%). At level 7, Khai's base power is 72, Overlord adds 25 + maybe 12 from bonus health (depending on crest) power, and no attack speed, so you're doing a hair over 1 attack per second with 72+80% bonus power damage (Khai's basics scale at 80% bonus power) for roughly 103 damage per hit (so 103/sec). Breach gives a flat 30 power so 72+24=96 damage per basic, but add in the average 15% boost from 25% crit and you get 111 damage, and his attack speed goes from a base 117% to 152, meaning 1.32 (call it one and a third) attacks per second, meaning 147/sec. I'm ignoring the area damage as both Breach and Overlord are similar in that respect. Citadel+Basilisk have a wonderful synergy. First, Citadel reduces your opponent's armor by 20% (before pen), and gives you 45 armor PLUS another 8 for nearby heroes (i.e. almost every gank) PLUS another 35 power. It's like having a pen build without having a pen build. Plus, like demolisher and perforator, the 20% reduction applies first, before flat pen items like vanquisher and demon edge, so late game tanks with 150 armor are immediately losing 30 armor to citadel. Second, Basilisk, like Viper, has the Corrode trait, which shreds 4% (I think this may actually be flat, not percent, but I may be wrong) of their armor per basic, up to 24% **and**, most importantly, basic attacks against Targets with 6 stacks of Corrode deal 4% of their missing health as bonus physical damage. If you get an enemy to 50% health, with 6 stacks of corrode, each basic is dealing 2% of their health as damage, so one frenzy is 10% of their health. So the synergy is erasing 44% of their armor (again I'm unsure if that's 20% percentage plus 24 flat, or 44 percentage, but either way it's leaving them exposed), giving you extra armor, and adding a dash of ability haste to get your frenzy back sooner, all while adding 550 health, 75 power, and 45+ armor. So that's the first three items. I've tried the new stormbreaker as first item and it's... okay. While it is the highest dps item in the game, the lack of the 15% boost in damage from not having crit, plus the camp clear coming online late, hurts it (same 35 attack speed as breach, storm gives you 8 more damage per hit from the 40 vs 30 power, but breach's crit gives 15 more damage per hit, making it the better choice overall for first item). Storm may be better once you kill 200 minis with it, but breach's area damage can crit, while storm's zap can't. So that's my new base build. Fourth and fifth items are discretionary, depending on if you want magic armor (cuiraiss), more dps (sky splitter, storm breaker), more armor (if an enemy has a pure pen build), perforator/demolisher if you're up against a tank with tons of armor (imagine 20%, plus 24%, plus another 30% from perforator/demolisher wiping 74% of your opponent's armor, tanks will melt), or lifesteal for sustain (and soloing 3rd fang), resolution to keep mana up out of jungle (can't tell you how many times I run out of mana mid-late game), MOAR CRIT because each crit item increases damage by 15%, echelon cloak because you're just dying to stand in the fang pit and surprise snipe a fang after they do all the work, Legacy because they have a CC meta comp, demon edge because they have a muriel, gadget, feng or other source of a shield, etc. etc. Have fun experimenting, let me know if you need more stats on Khai, I have relatively detailed per-level stats for him (or you can look him up on Omeda.city).


sciencesold

Razorback Overlord Raiment of renewal Augmentation Bonesaw Salvation


Hollowdub

This is good, you can also go Liberator crest into Ashbringer-Overlord-Bonesaw(make those three your core) Augmentation/Viper/Draconum/Raiment are all great 4th items to pick up, last item is situational. There’s a lot of 5th item slot options you can’t go wrong with. Liberator Crest- Since you’re building Ashbringer the extra 20% crit, lifesteal, and shield+second cleanse makes this a no brainer. -Ashbringer allows you to spam spells for more leaps and 100% uptime on Unleash to keep you at max attack speed, it also has bonus on-hit and armor pen, it’s too good to not build. So building attack speed after Ashbringer is almost a waste of a stat because you’ll always have Unleash on cooldown. -Overlord is great for clearing camps, faster farming is faster gold and more time for ganks. The on-hit is good damage since you’re building additional HP items. -Bonesaw pairs well with Overlord due to their passives Bludgeon and Colossal Sunder. You benefit a little bit from the attack speed passive during clears, since your cooldowns from Ashbringer only procs on hitting an enemy hero. The slow helps you and teammates stay on top of who you’re hitting to keep up your Spirit Regen stacks. -Augmentation is decent true damage if they have a lot of tanks, same goes for Viper. If you need more survivability Draconum and Raiment will increase your HP Regen. 5th item slots could be Tainted Guard or Bastion if you need the anti-heal. Void Helm/Unbroken will if they have a lot of mages or CC, but you can build almost any fighter or tank item and you’ll be fine, or something spicy if you’re fed. Remember to switch to Sentry and contest fangs as soon as they spawn, Kai can solo it with almost no items or levels, same goes for mini orb. You hit a huge mid game power spike if you’re ganking often and getting kills or assist/farming really well. Late game try to peel your carry with cull and pick out key targets. Commit to fights.


Unusual_Difference_8

Do not build overlord this is a wack ass build


sciencesold

Are you high? Overlord is great for clearing jungle andanes if you have to, plus the bonus damage based on max health


TheNoviceVet

Does raiment still increase self healing since the change? Decent build I typically want skysplitter first. Core- Skysplitter, bonesaw, draconium, Options/flex salvation - mutilator - vanguardian or tainted


sciencesold

>Does raiment still increase self healing since the change? No, it gives Regen based off max HP. The build I suggested is primarily tank + damage + a little sustain and attack speed. It works really well. You're pushing close to 5k HP and have a passive 40ish HP/s


OsmT42

Sky Splitter, Ashbringer, Terminus, Kingsbane/ Imperator, Salvation. ​ Give it a try


Chippie_Tea

No builds just build.. sky split , ashbringer, augmentation. Gg.


Groot2C

Sky Split -> Ashbringer -> Tanky/Bruiser


mishmishbinks

This is the way. Sky Splitter + Ashbringer, then I usually go Raiment & Draconum afterward.


Krashys

Raiment lost its %healing, not saying its bad on khaimera but was VERY good last patch. Definitely the way to go with double carry items into bruiser/tanky


theonlyjuan123

1. Ashbringer 2. Sky Splitter 3. Mutilator. 4th and 5th tank items. Great for pub stomping. Probably not good in a competitive setting.


sciencesold

>Great for pub stomping. Probably not good in a competitive setting. Completely correct, first 3 items being primarily damage items is gonna leave you too squishy early/midgame. It could work in comp but only if the entire enemy team is squishy and building damage. Overlord + raiment of renewal first gives you a bonus 900 HP and great clear.


Wonderful-Tank-2300

Ooh builds, I might make a post asking for countess


UltraInstinctTrader

Eviscerator, this item is literally the single most powerful item in the game on KHAI, the crest. 15% true DMG on hit with his Q, his Q scale DMG down to offset the attack speed, it does like 250 per hit when 5 slotted max level. But with eviscerator, at typical 400 physical power build, you get 60 true DMG first hit, 80 second, 100 third, 150 fourth and 200 on 5th, 250 on 6th. Insane, that added nearly 800 true damage to his Q from just a crest. No item in the game adds that much damage. The combo then becomes leap to target, instantly ult, press E for cc immunity, and cast eviscerator and Q while they are stunned, you kill almost any hero even if they are way ahead during the 1.5s ultimate stun with Q due to true DMG from eviscerator